Symphonic Band is one of the three bands available at Pacifica High school along with marching band and jazz band, all led by the wonderful Ms. Rogers. Ms. Rogers is the band director but within each instrumental section in Symphonic band, there are also at least two section leaders who are similar to student leaders that lead practices when each instrumental section is divided into their individual roles. Symphonic band practices every day during third and fifth period and their main performances include their Winter Concert in December, the Santa Susana Band Festival Competition in March, the immense OUHSD Bands Night, Rio Mesa School District Festival, the Spring Concert, and Graduation. Being a part of Symphonic band is a great way to connect with other people from various grade levels who have a passion for music, practice performing in front of audiences, and learn about music as a career!

Practices for in-class rehearsals involve warm-ups such as playing a chorale or small scale from method books before getting started on the actual pieces. If time permits, they will learn a bit of music theory and then they will start practicing their pieces for their upcoming events. Symphonic band is divided into the upper woodwind, brass, low brass, string, percussion, flutes, alto saxophones, clarinets instrumental sections. Each student is asked to take their instruments home on the weekends to practice their pieces in their band folder. Symphonic band players have a specific concert attire that they wear for every performance including a full body suit for the gentlemen and a black dress with flats or high heels for the ladies.

The Santa Susana Band Festival Competition is where the band travels to Santa Susana high school and plays three pieces for a panel of judges in order to make it to regionals. After that part of the competition, the band is placed into a room called the “sight reading room” where they are placed with another judge in order to play an unknown musical piece within a certain time limit. Although it’s a lot of hard work, everyone in the band enjoys making friends over time, performing music as a way to express themselves, and learning about the many different styles of music. Pacifica High school wishes good luck to the Symphonic band performers as they get ready to perform for the Santa Susana Band Festival on March 15th!

Swimming is one of the many spring sports that takes place at Pacifica High School. From having to go to six AM practices to having fun as a team on meet days, swimming is definitely a challenging but rewarding sport to be in. From jumping off the board at the sound of the buzzer into cold water to finishing laps breathless and exhausted, swimmers give everything they have! Pacifica High School’s swim coaches are Travis Dasnoit, Sheri Neely, Francisco Ramos, and Nick Sanchez.

Among the many swimmers on the 2019 season swim team are seniors Yaneli Calderon, Sara Mascorro, Lauren Mora, Mayra Ornelas, Stefanie Covarrubias, Anne Carpio, Hiram Martinez, Lindsey Valdez, David Garcia, Robert Mcshirley, juniors Ramon Rodriguez, Tony Ochoa, Eileen Ramos, Tanya Bui, Kamille Romero, and sophomore Romeo Tirado. Practices and meets are quite intense as swimmers continually strive to improve their times even by milliseconds and finish their laps as fast as they can. Swimmers practice proper breathing techniques, warm-ups, and cool-downs. They also try to master different swimming strokes such as breaststroke, butterfly stroke, backstroke, and freestyle.

Among the many events to compete in include the individual medley, medley relays, and freestyle relays. The sequence of the medley relay includes a backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle stroke while an individual medley follows the order of a butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle stroke. Among all the types of swimming strokes, the butterfly stroke is one of the hardest to master since it requires strength and good technique. While swimming is a lot of hard work, the team has fun through team building exercises such as team huddles and making human pyramids.

Many of the swimmers have goals of not being disqualified and trying to beat their personal records through training hard to continually become faster and stronger. They hope to qualify for CIF and have fun and grow closer as a team this season. The coaches have high expectations for their swimmers but know that their swimmers are up to the challenge. As the spring swim season starts, we wish the swimmers good luck to reach their goals of making it to CIF and beating their personal records!

As the winter season descends upon us, it’s easy to bring ourselves into the festive lifestyle: bundling up in cozy clothes, drinking hot chocolate, and spending hours upon hours watching holiday films. It’s not hard to get caught up in the goodness that comes around as the temperatures drop and spirits lift.

However, what many seem to forget is those who don’t have as much as we do. The holidays, which are seen as a time of joy and jubilation, are seen through a different lens in the eyes of those who have close to nothing.

Many identify the last few months of the year as the season of giving. Here at Pacifica, we take that saying to heart. One of the various ways in which we’re giving this year is the well-known hygiene drive, introduced to the school by our very own Peer Resource club. The drive’s donations will be dispersed amongst Ventura County’s homeless youth throughout the holiday season.

The drive will consist of newly donated sanitation items, such as toothpaste, lotion, female products, q-tips, and first aid kits. The items, however, must be travel-sized, so that there will be greater opportunity for more items when given to the less fortunate.

The donation dispensation has been going on at Pacifica for only a few weeks, and already classrooms are already filling their distribution boxes to the brim, with some classrooms needing a secondary box to put the rest of their donations in. Many teachers and students are proud of the results they’ve achieved this quickly, especially since the announcement for the drive wasn’t that long ago. Everyone around the school is happy that they can contribute that will result in something good for the better of the community.

Donations will be accepted all throughout the week before we head off on break. If you can, donate; if you can’t, be sure to tell others about the drive, so that they can help as well.

To say that our recent football season was great is an understatement. The improvement of last year’s 2-9 ratio to an extraordinary 11-2 win/loss scale is nothing short of phenomenal. Among this year’s feats was the making of sports history for Pacifica in two specific categories: winning 10 games in the season and making it to semifinals for the first time.

After dominating the field at home for nine games, our boys were given the amazing opportunity to play in CIF for the Division 6 Championship. With all the support and confidence radiating, the championship title was within our Tritons’ reach.

On November 2, the boys played home against the Fullerton Indians at Ventura College, where the Tritons would continue to play throughout playoffs due to unsafe grounding. Despite the seemingly far location, our spirit carried through the next town over as many students and staff were there to support the boys. Fullerton proved no match for our Tritons as we dominated them with a score of 58-0. A student at the game, who wishes to remain anonymous, stated, “I’ve never seen a beatdown given like that by Pacifica. It was crazy.”

Moving towards the quarterfinals, the boys were ready to play Mayfair, the same school that had previously beaten them last year in CIF. This year, our Tritons were ready to give them their all, determined to claim revenge on the field. Their rage was put on hold, however, as the southern California fires rampaged close to home. The original date and location had been postponed to Saturday, November 10 at Ventura High School. The sudden change of events didn’t seem to faze the team, as they put in the best of their efforts against the Mayfair Monsoons, enough to send them into overtime. With the game leading down to one field goal, kicker Scooter Carranza landed it, granting Pacifica the opportunity to enter semifinals for the first time in school history.

With the feeling of finals within reach, our Tritons gave it their all in preparation for their biggest game yet. The following Friday, the boys made the long ride to West Covina for a showdown against South Hills High School. Many students and faculty turned out for support, carrying Triton pride counties over from home. Despite all efforts, Pacifica lost to South Hills with the final score of 20-13.

It was a bittersweet moment, having made it so far in the season, but knowing that this year’s team made a permanent mark on Triton football is an achievement many staff members and students will remember throughout high school.

Shane Dawson is a YouTuber known for his conspiracy videos and wearing the same shirt. Formerly known for overly-straightened hair and comedy sketches, his self-deprecating humor has remained while his videos have recently transformed into documentaries on other internet celebrities. Beginning with a documentary on his past and confronting his father about leaving him, he went on to do multiple part installments of a documentary with Tana Mongeau, Jeffree Star, and Jake Paul.

Tana Mongeau disappointed fans after her infamous Tanacon event in June. After being denied a “featured creator” the past two years in a row, the YouTube went on to shade VidCon and created a self-named event on the same weekend as VidCon at the Marriott Anaheim Suites, which was minutes away. The event was a disaster, an understatement, with Tana promising free passes, but everyone had to purchase $65 passes.

After roughly 4,500 paid fans showed up to the hotel, the event was shut down because the Marriott could only safely support about 3,000 people in total. Many people left dehydrated, disappointed and with severe sunburns as most of them were in the sun for over 6 hours. In a video by Safiya Nygaard where she impersonated Shane, “I’ve got it! I’m gonna do a three part series on luxury trash cans”, to which her boyfriend, Tyler Williams, replied “Tanacon?”. After Shane’s Tana Mongeau documentary was released, the blame was shifted to the manager of “Good Times” Entertainment Management Company or “that bleached blonde guy on the segway”.

Jeffree Star has been stirring up controversy since his MySpace days. With a pained childhood where his father left him, he was suicidal and depressed throughout high school. He revealed in the documentary that he always wore long sleeves and sweaters when it was over 90 degrees to hide the scars. His full-body tattoos are used to hide all the scarring on his skin. His anger built up more when people would constantly harass him over his sexuality and appearance.

He countered them by being louder and more rude, shouting back slurs that he later apologized for, understanding that he was wrong, and people are much more accepting now. Many viewers who initially hated Jeffree began to appreciate all the hard-work it took to build up himself and his company alongside his humor and personality after seeing his perspective and why he was so explosive in his past.

Shane Dawson also looks into the world of Logan Paul, an entertainer ostracized for making inappropriate comments and displaying offensive material in his videos. After Dawson interviewed him, viewers were left looking at Paul from a different point of view and started to sympathizes him for proclaimed mental illnesses.

Despite Shane constantly putting out new material, fans aren’t always left satisfied. Some viewers say that by interviewing problematic people, it erases their negative side from the media and causes people to forget about their bad choices. One thing is certain, Shane Dawson distributes content that leaves people wanting more.